20th of Heartfire, 4E201


We woke early this morning, and had a delicious breakfast at the inn before setting out for the barrow. Marcurio had Wilhelm into making something called scrambled eggs, and they were amazing!

With the dragon claw in hand, we were able to make it further into the barrow now. We fought a few draugr and skeletons in the first few rooms, and one of the draugr was wearing a copper circlet with rubies set into it. Marcurio took it off of its head, wiped it off, then put it on. He then asked if I had wanted it, and I shook my head. He grinned and we continued further into the barrow, his circlet resting on his head crookedly.

Further in,we encountered more draugr, and one really tough one in a room near some puzzle pillars. No solution was on the walls or anywhere nearby, so I didn't know how we were supposed to get any further into the ruin. There was a bridge across a gap, but we couldn't get it down. I assumed that the puzzle pillars must have something to do with it. In the room with the tough draugr, Marcurio accidentally stepped on a pressure plate searching for treasure, and it made something in the walls move. There were four spinning stone doors along the wall.  Behind each door was a carving, and each carving had one of the symbols from the pillars.Then I remembered that there were four pillars. It must be the solution! I got Marcurio's help moving the pillars into the right place, and we stepped on another pressure plate, which lowered a bridge and opened a door towards where we needed to go.

Inside of the nearby hallway, there were more traps, and a flame trap that activated when Marcurio grabbed a gold ingot off of a pedestal in a room next to the hallway. Thankfully he had quick reflexes and didn't get burned.At the end of the hallway, we found a large room with platforms and steps, and lots of coffins. We crept inside, and the doorway we'd come through shut behind us, thanks to a gate sliding down and blocking our exit. Then the coffins started to burst open, and the skeletons and draugr were upon us.

We killed most of them in the room, and Marcurio was searching their pockets for trinkets, when the last coffin burst open. A draugr crawled out of it, and came after us. He even shouted at us,knocking us both backwards. Was he a long dead Dragonborn too? Or did he just learn like the Greybeards had? When he finally fell to the ground in defeat, a bridge behind his coffin dropped down, and we continued further into the ruin. We found a large chest in the room beyond, and Marcurio ran towards it. I stopped him, since it could have some sort of lock or trap on it. He was about to argue, then noticed a bit of old rope attached to the side of the lid. I disabled the lock attacked to the rope, then we opened it. Inside was a fair amount of coin, which I let him keep. I took a beautiful set of boots for myself. They looked like my elven boots, but had green glass made into them. They reminded me of my bow that I had found in a chest. I couldn't remember which ruin I'd gotten it in though. At the back of the room, there was another chanting wall, like in Bleak Falls Barrow. Marcurio didn't want to go near it, but I told him that it was alright. When some of the letters on the wall glowed and shot out of the wall to surround me, Marcurio sounded like he was having a heart attack. He asked if I was alright, and I looked at him like he was crazy. Then, I explained that this happened if I got near one of these walls, because I was the Dragonborn. He still didn't seem to believe me about that. There was water all around the floor of the room, and Marcurio went for a swim to look for treasure that the ancient Nords might have hidden under water. He managed to actually find a chest, but he couldn't get it open because it was locked. I sighed and waded in after him to go unlock it. I really needed to teach him how to use a lockpick. I managed to get it open, but it only had a couple of potions, a few coins, and a soggy magic scroll inside. He was going to leave the scroll, until I told him how much they sold for in the shops. Thankfully the enchantment on it had kept it from completely falling apart. We laid it out on a cloth square, then carefully rolled it up. Marcurio stuffed it into his bag, and we went through a nearby door to see where it led. Through it was a secret passageway, which opened into the room Wyndelius had been staying in. We hurried out of the ruin and back out into the wonderful fresh air.

I felt gross and smelly, so I decided to take a bath. Marcurio took most of my things for me, and told me that he was going to get something to eat at the inn. As he walked away, I noticed that he was still wearing that circlet that he'd found in the barrow. I decided not to remind him about it,  since it made me giggle to myself.

After a relaxing bath in the river, I headed to the inn for some dinner. I found Marcurio at a table with a few of the townspeople, in the middle of a grand story about our adventures in the barrow. I also noticed that he was still wearing that circlet. Either he really liked it, or he didn't realize how silly it looked on him. I sat at the bar and talked to Wilhelm, and had a nice dinner. He asked me if all of the things Marcurio said about the barrow were true, and I told him that most of it was, with only a little embellishment. He seemed amazed that we had survived. After dinner, I went ahead and rented a room for the night, since it was getting late. I got my bag and gear from Marcurio, then went to get ready for bed. I took out my books, and read the spell book that Stalleo had given me. It taught a spell called Detect Life. Unfortunately, I couldn't use it to detect undead, machines, or daedra. It would be useful in bandit lairs though, so I could see how many were in rooms before going into them. I tried it out, and everyone in the inn glowed purple, even through the walls. I noticed a few more notes about the spell, and it explained that enemies would show up differently than friends. Well, that would be handy. Enemies, and those likely to be hostile towards us, would glow red. Friendly people would glow purple. Hopefully it could be used to spot assassins hiding along the road as well. I put my books away and decided to get some sleep. Hopefully Marcurio wouldn't stay up too late, since we had a long day of travel ahead of us tomorrow.